


Lean on Me

by KaijuusAndKryptids



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Miðgarðr | Midgard, Post-Canon, Post-Ragnarok, Sharing a Bed, Slight anxiety attack, talking about feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 03:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10402542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaijuusAndKryptids/pseuds/KaijuusAndKryptids
Summary: After the high of preventing the apocalypse passes, Magnus realizes how Not-Okay he is and he opens up to Blitz an Hearth about it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about something like this for a while, and wanted to post it before Ship of the Dead came out. I just didn't think I'd be so fascinated/inspired by this concept to finish it in less than a month O.O'

Here he thought Einherjar fought hard and intense battles, but they can party just as intensely. It’s been two weeks since almost-Ragnarok and Valhalla is still party-crazy. Magnus has to crash at Blitz’s Midgard apartment just to get enough peace and quiet so he can sleep! Besides, it’s comforting to know his two best friends are still alive and well after he hasn’t seen them in too long after that crazy event.

 

So it’s been a week since Magnus came back to Midgard, and there’s somebody he really wants to celebrate not dying (again) with; His mom. Hearth accompanies Magnus to the graveyard, weaving through the Boston crowds surprisingly well with his crutches. He needs to walk around anyway for his physical therapy. The graveyard is much quieter. There’s enough space for Hearth to hobble around on his crutches and for Magnus to walk beside him without having to crush the store-bought daisies even more.

 

Now this is the part where he turns to look at his mom’s grave, and he wants to say that he set the flowers on her grave, tells her his great heroic tale, and leaves with his pride intact. But just turning to face her grave makes him flinch. Magnus traces her name, well, THEIR name on her grave and it hits him. The blinding pressure in his sinuses, the hot burn of unshed tears, the bile he can’t seem to swallow. And he sobs once, no twice, before he tries to hold them back. And like a dam with a crack, he cries. Hard. The pressure of the fate of the nine worlds resting on his shoulders was too heavy. The fact that he was never able to properly grieve for his mother’s death; Or properly grieve for his own death, rips another sob from him. Watching from too far away while his friends are in peril; Blitzen surrounded by giants, Sam fighting for control of her own body, Alex struggling to keep her head above water. And the sick snap of Hearth’s leg while he tries to fend off monsters. The constant mind-games with Loki, and never knowing if his dreams are truly his own. Nearly dying over and over and over again because demigods are born with a target on their backs. _Actually_ dying over and over and over again, and having to just be okay with it because that’s how things are done in Valhalla.

 

Magnus is normally not a very huggy person, but he can’t seem to muster up the energy to care. He hugs Hearth like he’s wanted to for a while now, and cries into his chest. Hearth holds him tight, keeping his worries contained while Magnus gets it out of his system. It’s when Magnus’s shoulders start to shake harder and his hands messily grasp at the jacket on Hearth’s back for something to hold onto that Hearth curls around Magnus protectively, holding him together so he can fall apart.

 

They stay like that for what feels like a lifetime. Hearth refuses to budge even an inch until Magnus’s shudders and sobs die out and he’s completely still. Both mentally and physically.

 

Magnus would be incredibly grateful if he wasn’t so tired from all the crying.

 

Hearth slowly unwraps his long limbs from around Magnus’s comparably small frame, and unsticking Magnus’s hair from his face and pushing it back. Magnus presses his hands into his eyes, raking them down his face to get rid of the evidence. He takes a steadying breath, chest tight and absolutely exhausted from all the crying. He doesn’t meet Hearth’s eyes when he signs a wobbly ‘ _Sorry, I really needed that hug.’_

 

And Hearth signs back ‘ _You can hug me whenever, you know.’_

 

‘ _Yeah, okay. Its just the living-on-the-streets thing that makes being soft a weakness_.’ Hearth nods and cracks a smile.

 

‘ _Well,_ ’ Hearth starts out, straightening up, ‘ _You know Blitz and I love you and would do anything for you, right?’_

 

‘ _You’ve done just about everything there is to do_ **because** _of me’_ Magnus signs weakly, and his eyes would be watering right now if he had any tears left in his system.

 

Hearth pulls him back into another hug, petting his hair and Magnus sniffles as he basks in it. That pine-y nature smell stuck to Hearth (underneath that edgy aftershave and musky shampoo Blitz insists on buying) is like breathing in a big ole whiff of ‘home’. When Hearth pulls away again he asks, ‘ _Do you want to see Blitz right now? He’d want to be there for you too, but if you don’t feel comfortable telling him right now I promise I won’t say anything._ ’

 

And this is why Magnus gets so mushy around his friends. He smiles at Hearth and nods, overcome with a new emotion that makes it hard for him to sign clearly. ‘ _That’s okay, I’d want him to know._ ’ Which makes Hearth smile encouragingly in response. He nods and then asks, ‘ _Do you want me to get Sam? Or Alex?’_

 

And to that, Magnus shakes his head. _‘I don’t really want them to see me right now.’_

 

Hearth nods and pats Magnus’s cheeks, which he pretends to be bothered by, but they both know that’s lie. Magnus takes Hearth’s arm and helps him to his feet. He’s about to lead Hearth out of the graveyard when Hearth pulls out a rune with a little square on it with antennae coming from the bottom, the rune for Othila, and a portal leading to his bedroom in Blitz’s apartment opens right in the middle of someone’s grave. He might have teased Hearth for being disrespectful of the dead if he wasn’t so impressed. As the portal closes behind them Magnus looks over at Hearth in wonder and laughs. “Cool!”

 

Hearth indulges in a proud smile. Then he asks, ‘ _How do you want to handle this? Did you want to tell him or do you want me to explain? Do you want something to drink first?’_

 

Magnus takes a steeling breath and signs back, ‘ _Drink first?’_

 

Hearth nods and scurries to the kitchen, relying on the wall and leaving Magnus behind to wash up in the master bathroom. He plows past Blitzen sitting at the counter and maneuvers around the kitchen with expert familiarity to make 3 mugs of his famous hot chocolate.

 

Blitz clears his throat, giving Hearth a confused and worried look, to which Hearth responds, ‘ _It’s Magnus,_ ’ while waiting for the milk to heat up. Blitz scans Hearth’s face, looking dreadfully tired and screaming with worry, and _somehow_ isn’t put at ease. Blitz stands to go grab a blanket from his own room when Magnus wanders into the hall. He greets Blitz with a weak smile and Blitz asks, “Hey, what’s wrong kid?”

 

Hearth stomps to get his attention and aggressively signs ‘Drinks First.’ Blitz throws his hands up in surrender and grabs that blanket. He smothers Magnus with it and wrestles him into a burrito which Magnus half-fights (and half-helps), surprising a shriek of laughter out of Magnus as Hearth hobbles over with their drinks. Magnus smiles into his mug as he takes a sip of the heavenly beverage. If there’s one thing Hearth can make, it’s hot chocolate.

 

Magnus waits until his friends have settled in on either side of him before he starts to explain that he never let himself think about his mom after she died because she’ll never come back, and he’d almost certainly never get a chance at that familial warmth and affection so he wouldn’t let himself entertain the desires to hug them or initiate any kind of physical affection with them. Then he talks about how he never got to mourn his own death, even when he went to his own wake and saw his body in a casket, but he couldn’t even stay to talk with his cousin until after binding Fenris Wolf because of all the God stuff going on.

 

Blitz and Hearth wrap around the Magnus Burrito and he takes a deep, albeit shaky, breath.

 

He reveals his conversation with Annabeth after the Giant’s Wedding, and the crushing weight of knowing how much magic and monsters are roaming the city and hurting everyone he cares about.

 

Blitz squeezes Magnus, and in his steady deep voice replies, “We aren’t going anywhere. We survived Ragnarok. A stray monster or two wouldn’t stand a chance against Hearth’s crazy rune-less magic and my trusty Duck Hammer!”

 

Magnus huffs a laugh, which bleeds into a yawn, and he curls up with the remainder of his hot chocolate. He finishes the drink just before nodding off. Hearth catches the mug before it drops and starts to hobble over to the sink when Blitz stomps to get his attention. ‘ _Let me get that, you need to rest up.’_

Hearth rolls his eyes and shakes his head. ‘ _I’m fine’_ he signs over his shoulder. Blitz groans loudly in reply, not that it makes any difference. He still doesn’t move though, as Magnus is asleep half on his shoulder and he doesn’t want to risk waking him up just yet. Blitz knows he went to the graveyard today and worries about how much Magnus has been holding back that he never noticed. Interrupting Blitz’s train of thought, Hearth plops onto the couch and drapes himself on Blitz’s other shoulder and signs ‘ _You’re warm._ ’

 

Blitz glares at the smug elf and signs back, ‘ _If you weren’t such a tall popsicle I might be okay with that._ ’ Hearth just closes his eyes with a hum and shoves his frigid fingers in Blitz’s neck “to warm them up”. Blitzen can’t find it in him to be mad.

 

* * *

 

Magnus wriggles around, feeling too hot and trying to kick the blankets off. He kicks a solid mass that grumbles and pushes back. He opens his eyes and finds himself sandwiched between a sprawled out elf and a curled up dwarf. Memories of climbing into bed with his mom to watch a movie really late at night or just because he missed her drifts into his forethought. He huffs a laugh at the irony and Blitz cracks an eye open mumbling, “What?”

 

Magnus shifts to face Blitz better and smirks. “People used to call you guys my mom and dad,” he laughs some more, “I guess they weren’t totally wrong.”

 

Blitz clicks his teeth and smushes Magnus’s face more into Hearth, which coaxes another laugh out of Magnus. Magnus pushes Blitz’s hand away and settles back into the mess of pillows on Hearth’s bed. Blitz is still for a long minute, and Magnus thinks he might have gone back to sleep, then- “I was the dad, right?” Blitz asks sitting up.

 

Magnus teases, “Whatever helps you sleep better at night.”

 

“Brat.” Blitz teases back, “You’re grounded.” And both of them crack up, somehow managing to do the impossible and wake up Hearthstone. He pushes himself up and blinks the sleep out of his eyes like a kitten opening its eyes for the first time. Blitz looks over Magnus’s head at Hearth and signs, ‘ _You need help getting up?’_

 

To which Hearth gives a sleepy and short reply of his middle finger extended.

 

“Hey! Not in front of the Kid!” Blitz exclaims, slapping Hearth’s crude sign out of the air. Magnus turns to wave good morning at Hearth, who waves back with a smile. Then Hearth turns back to Blitz and sticks his tongue out. ‘ _I’m not made of glass_.’

 

“Glass, no. Paper? Yes.” Blitz replies. Magnus watches Hearth push himself to a sitting position, swinging his legs off the bed and Magnus’s eyes widen.

 

“Oh!” Magnus scrambles to get up and places Hearth’s arm around his neck. “Let me help you.” Which Hearth does. Blitz throws his hands up, squinting at Hearth in exasperation.

 

_‘Okay, you won’t let **me** help you but you’re fine with Magnus helping you.’ _

 

Hearth sticks his tongue out at Blitz again, and signs back ‘ _Magnus doesn’t pick me up and carry me places. It’s called **helping** me walk, not walking instead of me.’_

 

Blitz huffs and crosses his arms. Magnus stifles a laugh, but his smile betrays how amusing he finds their exchange.

 

‘ _He probably **could** lift you, you’re light enough_.’ And Hearth turns away with an exaggerated sigh. They really do argue over everything.

 

A lingering smile tugs at Magnus’s lips while he helps Hearth to the kitchen, basking in contentment at his weird, happy family.


End file.
